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Are Oxbridge students the most intelligent?
LadyCake
Posts: 3,126 Forum Member
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I was told "they are the creme de le creme" and a mini debate about people being taught to pass exams , academia and intelligence ensued.
Are those who attend Oxbridge college more intelligent than average in your opinion?
Do you worry that so much of public life , from the media to politics , is governed by people from just two unis?
Are those who attend Oxbridge college more intelligent than average in your opinion?
Do you worry that so much of public life , from the media to politics , is governed by people from just two unis?
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I don't think it matters that it is 2 unis, as for one thing, it is a collegiate system, so it more like 2x15 (or however many colleges there are) unis.
You have to go for an interview for Oxbridge and to be honest if they don't like you regardless of your grades they won't take you. My brother applied to Cambridge as his School said he had every chance of getting in (he was a straight A students who did Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry, Physics) he went for the interview wasn't successful which is good as he said he didn't like it anyway.
Yes
No
Anyone who is there who has been educated through the comprehensive schooling systen without any extra support are likely to be more intelligent than other students at other universities.
For the majority, if they have struggled in any areas of education, they will have had the advantage of private tutors and additional support. They won't have had to work and study at the same time or save for books. They will have had the best support and the least pressure, so for students who fall into that category, then no they are not the most intelligent.
They'd just be the best supported.
Obviously they are a very highly selected group, and do seem to work ferociously hard these days. The days of the 'gentleman's third' seem long gone. My extremely bright, motivated daughter seemed to spend the whole three years in a flat panic, getting about 10 times as much work as some of her friends at other universities. I thought her essays were awe inspiring, but I suppose I am neither impartial nor bright enough to judge.
How do you measure intelligence?
Is the student who has reached a non Oxbridge university getting a 2:1 or 1 but have had to study by themselves, no private tutors, having to work and study at the same time less intelligent than a non Oxbridge student who has been fully supported with additional private tuition, smaller class sizes etc.throughout their lives.
Does additional support provide additional intelligence?
And of course straight A students didn't get in automatically. Depended how they did in interview, on the entrance exam, etc. When we got there we were told for every single one of us sitting there, there were 30 people who passed 3 or 4 A Levels - had applied for the places we had - and not got them.
Only 2 of us out of 100 came from comprehensive schools - and both of us were Northerners. We were there on sheer merit and we knew it. What's wrong with that?:D
I had no problem with the bar being set high. I did think about Oxford - and my form tutor wanted me to apply - but in the end I decided against it, feeling I probably would set my heart on it then not get in anyway.
At uni I had a mate who was at Cambridge and he now, like me, is a professional writer. Which is all either of us ever wanted to do. In his case, I'm sure Cambridge helped him meet the right people to get his foothold in the world he now moves in. With me, it was a huge stroke of luck. He was brighter than anyone else I knew.
Having said that, I've known kids who had their secondary education at Eton and Harrow who really weren't that bright. Again, brighter than average, but not brighter than average for upper-middle/upper class kids going to private schools.
No. I'm actually quite comfortable with the people in charge not being thick as s**t.
How long are you going back Hogzilla. Warwick is regularly in the Top 10 for English and are extremely hard to get places for their courses. They do full day interviews.
I can go back seven years or more to vouch for that.
I can't talk for all subjects of course but Warwick has a fantastic reputation.
Just double checked Warwick was the sixth top university last year.
http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=9982
Going a little off topic though so to steer it back: yes, they probably would be more intelligent, or at least more educated, which is what encapsulates most people's ideas of intelligence I guess. To me it's more an issue of semantics, given the undefinable nature of intelligence.
I date back to the 80s. I know the system changed ages back - around the same time as the funding. I got all my fees paid and a Full Grant - I'd never have gone to uni otherwise.:D
I still think of the crap unis as - crap. Tough. I'm a product of my era.:D
The advantage to having gone to a good uni is that alumni's kids can go to my old uni with an offer of just 2 Es.:D Son 3 is doing GCSEs now but seriously thinking of going to my old uni when the time comes. They keep that quiet though.;)
Next thread please
*This may, or may not, be a biased opinion.
University Challenge probably gives you some idea of the relative levels - many Oxbridge Colleges put forward teams that are good, but not good enough to successfully take on the new universities, redbricks and specialist colleges.
As for most intelligent? You cannot be sure - I used to date a girl who had the best A-level marks in the whole of our county and chose to attend Wolverhampton Polytechnic.
What you can say is that there are few students who are academically poor.
Perhaps these days, the very brightest attend Harvard, Yale or MIT?
I've just checked the league tables, it seems Warwick has come a long way. (editted my last post to include the link) Warwick was sixth top university overall in 2010, I'm trying to find where the English Department landed as they are often higher than the overall achievement.
It's has an excellent reputation certainly going back seven years at least.
I trust you were not an scholar of English...
I so was.:D
As my old teacher used to say "You have to know the rules to break em".:D
Which you do so very well...
Brighter than average university students? Yes - competition for Oxbridge places means that (like any top university) they will be able to select the best
Are all the brightest students at Oxbridge? No. The best students at any top Uni, and in the best courses in most will be as able as the best of those who go to Oxbridge
They are clever yes. But some of them were clever academically but social skills, common knowledge on simple things they struggled with. I was good friends with one and he couldnt tie a tie, open a window etc!